beginner tutorial

Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Posted 13 April 2009 - 08:31 AM

Hey, I'm Nickolai51 and I'm fairly new to coding and am learning C++ from the "for dummies" range.
I would like to learn how to create Games/Game Engines using C++ but can't find a good tutorial
for this that I can understand, being a 12 year old.
If anyone can recommend a good one it would be much appreciated.

Replies To: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Re: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Posted 13 April 2009 - 02:44 PM

If you're thinking of game engines for games like WoW or CS and similar games then I'd say nowhere. I'm sure they exist but it's simply a matter of very complex math that you're not likely to understand when you're 20 years old (and yes I noticed that you said 12, not 20).
However, do not let this discourage you, instead let it be a goal for you. Pay attention during math class and try to be one step ahead.

Re: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Posted 13 April 2009 - 03:29 PM

For an intro to the language, try Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2008. It is only around $40-50 (USD) and is over a thousand pages of very good instruction. It will step you through from the look of Microsoft's compiler through to GUI applications and file work.

Re: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Posted 15 April 2009 - 03:08 AM

Game programming isn't a great subject to start with. I started when I was 12 (I'm 14 now) and what I'd recommend to you is learn you book well. Get another, intermediate or advanced (depending on how good you are).

Re: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Posted 15 April 2009 - 03:34 AM

Games Programming for a 12 year old can be very challenging - but not impossible.
In the UK, you need at least a GCSE in Mathematics to understand game programming well. Don't let this put you down - just remember you need to be good at Maths, and I'm sure you'll do good at maths.

On a personal note, at your age, I would start off with a 2D game in maybe a simpler language than C++, as C++ can be quite complicated unless you know your maths to a high level. Then again, that is just what I would've done. Maybe look into VB.NET or another language for a starter, to get used to what things mean such as variables, functions etc, then slowly move yourself up to C++.

Remember, keep trying! Nothing is impossible.
Good luck for the future.

Re: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

I always recomend to folow a tutorial when someone wants begins o any language/platform... but the game's programing is divided in two parts: Programers and art developers.

If you are more interested in game programing, I recomend you to learn before any beginers language like Visual Basic and, when you will be prepared, advance to Visual C# (or JAVA if you're interested in Internet) and finally C++.

If you're interested in arts, I recomend you to adquire any Render Machine, like Cristal Space(search more on Google), whitch you can make a simple game in a few minutes... or Blender (www.blender.org), a 3D modeling application that incorpores tools to create a game.

Re: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Posted 15 April 2009 - 06:14 AM

Hi Nickolai51

Welcome to dream.in.code

Games programming takes a long time to learn but being 12 you have all the time in the world to learn it, so good work

I would recommend taking your "for dummies" book and throwing it as far away from your fledgling programming mind as possible, this is mostly because they never seem to update there book's and also I don't think you should learn from something that assumes your a "dummie"

I think what is very important is that you get to grips with the fundamentals, that is not to say the fundamentals of programming but the fundamentals of games themselves.

What are different genre's of games?
What differentiates these genre's?
What makes a game fun?
What makes a game not so fun?

By all means dive into programming tutorials but take it slow, you don't want to burn out by the time your 14

Re: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Posted 15 April 2009 - 09:14 AM

Most people will tell you the math is complex and it can be for sure. However any good graphics or game programming book will get you stated. I would get a game programming book and go from there. In fact I find that books are the way to go for learning a lot of computer related stuff. There are bits and pieces on the web but the right book will take you through things in and orderly fashion and make the whole process easier.

If you want to do 3D game programming the worst thing is probably the collision detection. But once you wrap your head around it it's not so bad. In reality a lot of it boils down to 4X4 matrix operations, vector dot products and vector cross products. If you can master those three things you are a good way there. At 12 you are going to have to jump ahead math wise a bit, but it won't hurt you to try and there are worse things that you can spend your time on.

Re: Beginner Tutorial for 12 year old

Posted 15 April 2009 - 12:44 PM

nickolai51, on 15 Apr, 2009 - 10:21 AM, said:

Alright, thanks everyone, I'll probably carry on learning the
basics of c++ then slowly work my way onto a 2D game.

There is an older book by Sams called Teach Yourself Game Progamming in 24 hours. It doesn't go into anything like DirectX or OpenGL, it uses mostly GDI. After you've learned the basics of C++ programming you might want to start there. Just a thought.